THE THAMES RAN FOUL: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London breathed in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that scorched the metropolis. An even more repellent force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial waste had transformed London's lifeblood into a nauseating odor. The stench was oppressive, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and satu

The year 845 AD. A chill wind whistled across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent emanating from salt and fear. The Norsemen were amongst us, a stormy swarm of warriors seeking plunder. Their longships, like prowling predators, sliced through the waters, their standards billowing in the wind. A city once confident now trembled beneath the s